Gas turbine engines generally include rotor assemblies such as a compressor rotor and turbine rotor. A rotor assembly usually includes at least one row of circumferentially spaced rotor blades extending radially outwardly from a rotor disc to respective blade tips. Each rotor blade includes an airfoil having a pressure side and a suction side, connected together at leading and trailing edges. Each airfoil extends radially outwardly from a rotor platform which extends circumferentially in opposed directions. Each rotor blade also includes a blade root in a dovetail shape that extends radially inwardly from the platform and is received in one of a plurality of circumferentially spaced dovetail slots in the periphery of the rotor disc. In some rotor assemblies, particularly in turbine rotors, seal or damper members may be provided within a plurality of cavities located radially between the periphery of the disc and the platforms of the rotor blades and circumferentially between adjacent rotor blades. These seal or damper members seal gaps between adjacent platforms or absorb vibrations of the rotor blades during engine operation. Those seal and/or damper members must be installed together with the rotor blades onto the rotor disc in a rotor blade assembly procedure. This can be a challenging task.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide an improved method and apparatus for rotor blade assembly for gas turbine engines.